A Case Study of How Visually Impaired Learners Acquire Language
Abstract
The field of second language acquisition has grown enormously in the past decades. Many studies have been done on how learners acquire English as a second language; however, research on how visually impaired learners acquire English as a second or foreign language has been relatively scarce. It is even more difficult to find such studies in Vietnam. Based mainly on in-depth interviews with two visually impaired Vietnamese adults who have been successful in acquiring English, the present study seeks to answer two main questions: (1) How Vietnamese visually impaired learners acquire English as a second language; (2) What difficulties they have in learning English, and how they overcome their difficulties. The findings of the present study can contribute to the theory of second language acquisition and language teaching. The study can also provide strategies for practicing and learning a language not only for visually impaired learners but also for second language learners in general.
Downloads
References
American Foundation for the Blind. (2000). Educating students with visual impairments for inclusion in society: A paper on the inclusion of students with visual impairments Retrieved December 27, 2016, from http://www.afb.org/info/programs-and-services/professional-development/teachers/inclusive-education/1235
Arslantaş, T. K. (2017). Foreign language education of visually impaired individuals: A review of pervasive studies. IHEAD: Ihlara Journal of Educational Research, 2(2), 95-104.
Ellis, R. (2001). Second language acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ellis, R. (2005). Instructed second language acquisition - A literature review. Wellington: New Zealand Ministry of Education.
Ghafri, M. (2015). The challenges that visually-impaired students at Sultan Qaboos University face in learning English. In M. S. M. Salleh & E. Abdullah (Eds.), Proceedings of the 3rd Global Summit on Education 2015 (pp. 506-514). Kuala Lumpur: World Conference Resources.
Graham, L., Berman, J., & Bellert, A. (2015). Sustainable learning: Inclusive practices for 21st century classrooms. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.
Harmer, J. (2001). The practice of English language teaching. London: Pearson Education Limited.
Jedynak, M. (2010). Foreign language motivation - Some deliberations on its enhancement in visually impaired learners. In M.-S. A. (Ed.), Anglica Wratislviensia XLVIII (pp. 171-182). Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego.
Krashen, S. (2002). Second language acquisition and second language learning. New York: Pergamon Press Inc.
Milian, M., & Pearson, V. (2005). Students with visual impairments in a dual-language program: A case study. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 99(11), 715-720.
Money, K. W. (2010). The experiences of English language learners with disabilities: A case study analysis. Doctoral dissertation, The University of North Carolina.
Morrow, K. A. (1999). Blind secondary and college students in the foreign language classroom: Experiences, problems and solutions. PhD Dissertation, University of Kansas.
Resnikoff, S. E. A. (2004). Global data on visual impairment in the year 2002. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 82(11), 844-851.
Susanto, S., & Nanda, D. S. (2018). Teaching and learning English for visually impaired students: An ethnographic case study. English Review: Journal of English Education, 7(1), 83-92.
Copyright (c) 2020 Thi Minh Phuong Tran, Phuong Dzung Pho
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
By submitting the manuscript of the article, the authors agree with this policy with no specific document sign-off required.
The authors certify that:
- if the manuscript is co-authored, they are authorized by their co-authors to enter into these arrangements.
- the work described has not been formally published before in a registered ISSN or ISBN media, except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, review, or thesis.
- it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere,
- its publication has been approved by all the author(s) and by the responsible authorities – tacitly or explicitly – of the institutes where the work has been carried out.
- they secure the right to reproduce any material that has already been published or copyrighted elsewhere (it does not infringe the rights of others).
- they agree to Ethical Lingua license and copyright agreement.
All articles published by Ethical Lingua are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
License and Copyright Agreement
- Authors retain copyright and other proprietary rights related to the article.
- Authors retain the right and are permitted to use the substance of the article in own future works, including lectures and books.
- Authors grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in Ethical Lingua.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in Ethical Lingua.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post or self-archive their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.